Adams death-penalty trial starts Monday

Carroll Valley man faces death penalty in the shooting death of a wildlife conservation officer.

Both the prosecution and the defense have spent close to two years building their cases.

An out-of-town jury was selected, many witnesses and experts will be brought in to testify, and the fate of a man accused of killing a wildlife conservation officer on a November night in 2010 will be decided.

The trial of Christopher L. Johnson, 29, of Carroll Valley, is scheduled to start Monday morning in Adams County court.

Johnson faces the death penalty for allegedly shooting and killing Wildlife Conservation Officer David L. Grove after he pulled him over on suspicion of illegally shooting a deer.

Adams County District Court Administrator Donald Fennimore said this will be the first death penalty trial in Adams County since 1999 when Edward Siebor III faced charges in the murders of Phillip Hoover, and his wife, Rachel.

Capital trials are never an easy thing for anyone involved, especially, perhaps, the jury.

"The jury has the unenviable task of deciding 'does he get life or death?'" said University of Pittsburgh law professor John Burkoff. "It's almost always traumatic, and they are almost always tragic. And it's almost always sad, too."

Death penalty trials

Death-penalty trials come in two phases - the guilt phase and the capital-sentencing hearing.

Burkoff explained that the guilt phase is conducted like a typical trial.

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The prosecution lays out its case before a jury, then the defense gets a chance to present its side.

After the parties make their closing arguments, the jury deliberates, and comes to a unanimous verdict of either "guilty" or "not guilty."

But in death-penalty trials in which the jury comes back with a guilty verdict, the case enters a capital sentencing hearing in which a different defense attorney has a chance to present mitigating evidence to the jury, explaining why the now-convicted defendant committed the crime, Burkoff said.

This phase can include testimony from family members, clergymen, former teachers, friends and anyone who knew the defendant well, and can help the defense outline the circumstances of the defendant's past that Burkoff said do not excuse his actions, but may help explain them. Testimony could cover childhood traumas, addictions or psychological problems that did not give rise to a good insanity defense.

"Even when we have a defendant who is clearly guilty, and clearly deserves severe punishment, it's often the case we see the factors in his life that led him to do it," Burkoff said.

The prosecution has a chance to counter those mitigating circumstances by laying out the aggravating factors that led to the death penalty being sought in the first place.

Then it's in the hands the jury, who must unanimously decide whether to impose the death penalty. They have only two options - death, or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"It's pretty awful to be picked as a juror, then have to decide if someone lives or dies," Burkoff said. "It's a tough burden to place on ordinary people.

The Johnson case

Johnson is accused of shooting and killing Grove on Nov. 11, 2010.

According to court documents, Grove pulled over Johnson's vehicle on Schriver Road on suspicion Johnson had illegally shot a deer. Johnson allegedly told his passenger, Ryan Laumann, of Fairfield, that it was illegal for him to carry a gun because he was a felon, and he did not want to go to jail again.

GROVE

Johnson got out of the truck, and exchanged fire with Grove, who was pronounced dead at the scene, court documents indicate.

Johnson, who was wounded, fled, dropping off Laumann along the way.

Following a nightlong manhunt, Johnson was arrested the next morning on a trail off Orrtanna Road.

Johnson faces charges of murder in the first and third degrees, persons not to possess firearms, flight to avoid apprehension, firearms not to be carried without a license, possessing an instrument of crime, resisting or interfering with an officer, unlawful use of lights while hunting, and unlawful taking of big game.

Judge Michael A. George is presiding over the case. He issued an order this week limiting the number of members of the public who can watch the trial. Each morning at 8 a.m., 42 public passes will be made available.

Additionally, President Judge John D. Kuhn banned firearms, with limited exceptions, from the courthouse.

Fennimore said the trial is slated to last two weeks, but the court is prepared if it goes longer.

The last death penalty trial

Often in death-penalty cases, a plea agreement is reached just short of trial, or sometimes in the middle of it, which Burkoff said could be an ideal situation for both sides.

"The defense counsel is in a situation where they would be saving their client's life, and the prosecutor would be guaranteeing a conviction and guaranteeing this defendant never sees the light of day outside of prison ever again," Burkoff said.

That's what happened in Adams County's last death penalty trial.

In that case, Fennimore said, the death penalty trial began for Edward Siebor III in 1999, but Siebor took a plea before the trial concluded.

Siebor and his brother, Joseph Siebor, pleaded guilty to murdering an Abbottstown couple at the couple's home in 1994. Their arrests came five years after the murders.

Though the death penalty can be sought by prosecutors in first-degree murder cases, no one has been executed in Pennsylvania since 1999.

The last case heard in Adams County resulting in execution was a half-century ago, when the Montgomery County homicide case against Elmo Smith was moved to Adams County. Smith was convicted of the 1959 brutal rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl, and was executed in the electric chair in 1962.